For the expropriation and nationalisation of the Sanitarios Maracay factory

We publish a resolution addressed to President Chavez and
voted by the recent Pan-American gathering in Joinville, Brazil.
It calls on Chavez to expropriate the Sanitarios Maracay factory, to
nationalise it under workers’ control.

To the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela - Lieutenant-Colonel Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías

We publish a resolution addressed to President Chavez and voted by the recent Pan-American gathering in Joinville, Brazil. It calls on Chavez to expropriate the Sanitarios Maracay factory, to nationalise it under workers' control.

Mr. President,

We shop-stewards, representatives of workers in occupied factories, those who struggle for agrarian reform and in defence of workers' rights from Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Spain, Venezuela, Uruguay, Paraguay, Mexico, Italy, United Kingdom and Brazil, gathered on 8, 9 and 10 December in the CIPLA factory occupied by the workers (Joinville - Santa Catarina state - Brazil) in the 1st Pan-American Gathering in Defence of Jobs, Rights, Land Reform and Industry, we send to you, President Chávez, our warmest greetings for your victory in the December 3 elections. In our view your victory expresses the will of the Venezuelan people to support the revolution and the government on the path to socialism.

We struggle in defence of the rights of the workers, we fight against the injustice created by capitalist exploitation of labour, we join in solidarity with the struggles of the workers throughout the world and today we support the struggle of the Venezuelan people against imperialism, for the fully realization of their needs.

Venezuela shows the way forward for the whole of Latin America

For this reason we say "we are all Venezuelan". We are in the same battle side by side with the people and the workers of Venezuela. Their struggle is our struggle.

Mr. President, we have been informed that in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela a factory ‑ Sanitarios Maracay ‑ has been taken over by the workers. Why did the workers do this? Only to defend their rights against the ferocious attacks of the boss. He blackmailed the workers to accept to renounce all previous agreements, to scrap collective bargaining agreements and replace them with individual contracts between the boss and each worker ‑ a clear attempt to clamp down on trade union rights.

This factory has been occupied since November 15, and since then has been under workers' control. The workers' assembly stated that the taking over of the factory is based on the same aim of developing socialism that the Bolivarian Republic defends. For this reason they are ask of your government that the factory be expropriated and nationalized, so that the workers' rights can be guaranteed and production can be to the benefit of the government programmes on housing and especially to meet the demands of PETROCASA/Pequiven.

Mr. President, we, the workers and social movements united in this Panamerican gathering, the unemployed, the industrial workers, the fighters for agrarian reform, we all - if we lived in Venezuela - would have added our votes to the 10 million. From our own countries we cheered with joy when the CNE (National Electoral Committee) declared your victory in the elections. Your victory has been a victory for all the peoples exploited and oppressed by capitalism.

In this moment, when the forces of reaction could launch an attack against the revolution that is developing in Venezuela, we think that the taking over of Sanitarios Maracay is an important push in the direction of the expropriation of private property of the means of production. This is the first step towards achieving the tasks of building socialism and a planned economy under workers' control.

We have adopted as our slogan the phrase you raised at the gathering of recovered factories held in Caracas in October 2005: "Fabrica cerrada es fabrica tomada" ("factory closed is factory occupied").

For all these reasons, Mr. President, we declare our unconditional support for the struggle of the workers of Sanitarios Maracay. At the same time we would ask you to receive a delegation from the workers of the occupied factory as soon as possible and that you decree immediately the expropriation and nationalization of the factory for the benefit of the workers and people of Venezuela and to put it under workers' control.

Comandante, we call on you to expropriate and nationalize the Sanitarios Maracay factory!